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The controversy surrounding Carrier IQ, the company that provides analytics software for mobile phone manufacturers and wireless carriers, hit an all time high today as customers and even U.S. senators demanded answers.

We've heard from a lot of parties involved, including smartphone manufacturers and carriers about their stances on the issue.

Here's what we know so far:

First, A Little Background

A few days ago Carrier IQ was discovered living on Android smartphones by developer Trevor Eckhart. Eckhart found that Carrier IQ has the ability to track everything you do on your smartphone, including web pages you visit, texts you send, even the keys you press, and send them off to a third party.

Over the next few weeks Carrier IQ was reportedly discovered on Nokia, Samsung, HTC, BlackBerry, and even iPhone smartphones, drawing criticism from smartphone owners and privacy advocates.

What Smartphone Manufacturers Are Saying

So far Nokia and RIM deny allowing Carrier IQ on their phones and says all claims otherwise are false. Meanwhile, developers like Eckhart say Carrier IQ does exist on Nokia and RIM devices. Weird.

Samsung and HTC say their phones do have Carrier IQ installed, but only because their carrier partners mandate it. Both Samsung and HTC say they do not collect data from Carrier IQ, but their carrier partners do.

Motorola declined to comment on whether or not it uses Carrier IQ in its smartphones or collects data from it.

So What's The Carriers' Response?

Based on what OEMs told us, it seems clear that carriers are the ones requiring phones to have Carrier IQ.

Verizon was the first major U.S. carrier to go on the record about the Carrier IQ controversy. It says it does not use the program on its phones. Easy enough.

Next came Sprint, which told GigaOM it does use Carrier IQ, but only to monitor hardware and network performance. It does not look at personal data like e-mails, texts, web pages, etc.

AT&T echoed Sprint's position, offering a this brief statement on the controversy:

In-line with our privacy policy, we solely use CIQ software data to improve wireless network and service performance.

T-Mobile says the same thing. It uses Carrier IQ only to improve network performance and does not use the program to obtain personal user data. Here's the official statement from T-Mobile:

T-Mobile utilizes the Carrier IQ diagnostic tool to troubleshoot device and network performance with the goal of enhancing network reliability and our customers’ experience . T-Mobile does not use this diagnostic tool to obtain the content of text, email or voice messages, or the specific destinations of a customers’ internet activity, nor is the tool used for marketing purposes.

Carrier IQ Won't Say Anything

When news first broke about Carrier IQ on phones, the company's VP of Marketing Andrew Coward gave several interviews explaining how the company works. (He's since stopped speaking to the press and ignored our repeated phone calls.)

Coward did tell Brief Mobile on November 22 that Carrier IQ data anonymous before it sends it back to carriers and manufacturers, but does include some information like location. That's the juiciest bit of information we know so far.

What We Still Want To Know

Since AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all require some phones to have Carrier IQ, we're still confused why some manufacturers have it (Samsung, HTC, possibly Motorola) while others claim they don't (Nokia, BlackBerry).

Are carriers playing favorites, making some manufacturers install Carrier IQ, while others don't have to? Are RIM and Nokia completely unaware that Carrier IQ is on their phones? Are carriers somehow adding Carrier IQ without telling OEMs? What about people using iOS 4 or earlier? Are their phones still sharing data?

Frankly, all parties involved -- carriers and OEMS -- are doing a terrible job at answering the big questions and communicating what Carrier IQ means for their customers. There's a lot to unpack here, and customers deserve a clear answer. Personal privacy is at stake.

And Carrier IQ needs to come forward with a clear explanation of what its service is. It's still alarming that Carrier IQ's program has the ability to strip out personal data from your smartphone and we deserve assurance that this won't happen.